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Doug Davis - Ships, Night, Etc.

from Round 18, Week 12 by Monday Morning 3AM Music Club

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about

You know, I really surprised myself with this one. Given another insanely busy week, I was absolutely prepared to phone one in today, big time. In fact, on a jog this afternoon, I literally started writing some throwaway lyrics to the effect of "well, I tried, but I'm out of time, so I'll take a pass this time" (all written to the cadence of a song from the new Casey Musgrave album). I quickly wrote four throwaway verses, but even as I was trying to take a mulligan, the song started veering towards a "maybe we'll make this relationship happen in the future, but the timing is all wrong" kind of song. Still, pretty lightweight.

I wrote a throwaway chorus lyric using the "take a pass" catch-phrase, and I would have been fine with phoning it in. And then, at the very end of my run, the idea of "ships passing in the night" started running through my head, and I thought about the whole balanced mix of heartbreak and, well, blasé that was going on with the verses, and the idea of pinning the song on the title "Ships, Night, Etc." came to mind. That title really seemed to resonate with me as a nice balance of the emotions going through the narrator's mind.

Musically, for no apparent reason, I decided that I wanted to build something around ping-ponging inverted chords. I didn't go very far with this; there's nothing ground-breaking about it. I reverted to "weirdo crooner mode" (honestly, I have no idea who I'm aping when I sing/write in this mode; surely there's an obvious answer that eludes me). The whole thing literally came together in less than an hour, and it does kinda show.

But strangely, well, I like this. And it's kind of an actual song, which is rare for my MM3AM contributions these days. It needs a lot of work, and a lot more verse ideas, but it may be the start of something; we'll see!

credits

from Round 18, Week 12, released May 14, 2018

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